


Guardian

by sleepykit



Category: The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Paranormal Investigators
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-29
Updated: 2021-02-10
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:20:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 19,498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28416036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sleepykit/pseuds/sleepykit
Summary: A group of paranormal investigators and a reluctant werewolf team up to... mostly cause trouble.
Comments: 66
Kudos: 58





	1. Possessed Doll

**Author's Note:**

> FlipSpring is helping me by beta reading this story, and I can't thank them enough for the help (and the honor)!  
> Please check out their work at https://archiveofourown.org/users/FlipSpring  
> Also, in case anyone is doubting/unsure, I LOVE criticism. And that's not sarcasm. Comments and especially critiques help me grow as a writer. So if you read something and have commentary, don't hesitate to share it.

The humans should have really known better.

When the possessed doll struck, they were all standing around it and discussing possibilities. At one point, Ratthi even called the damn creature 'cute.' Frankly, I couldn't care less if the doll was alive or not—fuck metaphysical debate, I didn't even care if it had an actual heartbeat. All I cared about was that the humans (a group of paranormal investigators) didn't murder themselves while exorcising the demon inside. Because dying in a haunted house wasn't my idea of a good time.

The doll floated about a foot off the table, clearly not content to listen to plans of its own demise passively. I growled at it, and it glared daggers at me. But ha, it was contained on the table with magic, and I had sharp canines in case it decided to make a move.

Dr. Mensah, the head of this ragtag group of complete weirdos, pulled out a heavy book and consulted it like a proper witch. Pin-Lee came over and read some of the text over her shoulder. And while they were doing this, the doll somehow managed to scratch at the table with enough force to disturb their binding circle. 

It went for Dr. Baradwahj, possibly because the older woman was the closest and not wielding any weapons. Every item in the room that wasn't nailed down suddenly rose into the air. The humans looked around, bewildered. I heard someone mutter "shit" under their breath.

I had one priority: stop the idiot doll before it hurt Baradwahj. So, I lunged at the doll, grabbed it in my teeth, and landed on the other side of the table. I dropped the demon-possessed toy and stomped on it with both front paws.

"What’re you gonna do?" the doll taunted me. "You're worse off than me."

_ Oh, shut up, _ I grumbled and threatened it by showing off more teeth.

Suddenly, Dr. Mensah was standing over me. "Are you all right?" she asked as the doll tried to poke out an eye.

Why the fuck was this creepy, beady-eyed monster well-armed? I tried to bat the knife out of the creature's hands, but it was sewn on. Great. Just great.  _ No, I am not all right. Please do the thing you were going to do. _

In my human form, I can talk—I just don't want to because it's awkward as fuck—and when I'm a wolf, growls are all you're going to get. It's usually convenient, except when it's not. Dr. Mensah made a decision while I'd been wrestling with the angry little demon, and now, she and the rest of her team were actively doing their parts of the ritual. 

The doll thrashed about and tried several more times to poke me with its tiny knife. A few of those attempts hurt, but I was a giant wolf, and it was the size of a ruler. It just didn't stand as much of a chance.

Except at the fucking end, when the demon finally escaped its toy-sized body and materialized at full height. All seven feet of bright-red anger and resentment, with horns and glowing eyes for good measure. The humans flailed a little but kept going, chanting and whatever else they usually do to send a demon back to its plane of existence.

It swiped at me with way more force than before, and I had to struggle to stay on my feet. Its razor-sharp claws raked against my side, leaving behind bleeding lacerations. I returned the favor because I hate bleeding and because fuck that hurt. And I needed the demon to stand still long enough for the ritual to finish. 

When not-quite-Beelzebub over here realized I was sturdier than I looked, it turned to the nearest human and swiped at them instead. Oh no, you don't, you asshole. These are my humans. I don't like them, but they're mine, and you don't get to hurt them. 

I rushed at the creature, sprang with all the strength in my back paws, and knocked it over. Front paws on its chest, I growled in its face and opened my mouth, ready to bite at its neck. 

"Wait," Ratthi called. "Don't touch its blood."

I was tempted to growl at Ratthi instead to finish what he was doing and let me do my fucking job. I know not to drink demon blood. Everyone knows not to do that. But Mensah shushed him instead.

The demon yowled like a cat with its tail in a trap. It clawed at me and snapped its jaws, and generally made a nuisance of itself. And at the very fucking end, when the ritual was done, and it was literally halfway to its destination, it kicked me hard enough to send me flying into the ceiling. 

I landed on the floor where the demon had been. Everything hurt. 

"Are you all right?" Dr. Mensah asked again, kneeling beside me. 

I wanted to roll my eyes, but she was being nice. That's not something people usually do around me. I tried to sit up... which didn't go so well. Thankfully I'm magic, so I would heal given enough time and a lack of demons. 

"You know," Ratthi said thoughtfully, in that way where you could practically see gears turning in his head. "I wonder if this guardian can understand us."

"I thought it was a wolf. Wolves don't exactly speak English," Pin-Lee mused. 

"Yeah, but..."

Dr. Mensah sighed. "It most likely does."

I could've just laid there and pretended that I didn't understand them. It would have been easier that way. Except, they didn't have time to stand around and discuss my mental state. Shifting forms, I rolled over onto my back and stared at the ceiling. 

Gurathin turned around—done examining whatever had caught his interest—and stared at me. "Who's that?"

"You need to check the rest of the house," I said, "and set up a security perimeter. If there's one angry demon in this house, there are likely to be more of them."

This answered Ratthi’s question, apparently, because he looked briefly delighted and then uncomfortable. I didn’t bother to find out why on either count.

"The department said it was a single-item haunting," Arada explained.

"The department does shoddy work," I countered. 

"The guardian would know," Dr. Mensah interjected. "Let's set up a perimeter. It's standard procedure." She looked at me full-on, and I tried not to run or hide. "Are you all right, Guardian?"

I had some broken ribs and was probably leaking—nope, not probably, definitely—but I'd live. I was definitely not dying if that was the question. I sat up with a wince and took inventory. 

"I'll live." Getting up was more problematic, but the humans tried to help me, and that was worse. "I'll check upstairs." 

"Wait," Ratthi called out. "I'll go with you. Just in case. I'm pretty good with a wand."

The last time someone said that they ended up stabbing me in the eye with it, but sure. Let's go with that. I couldn't argue with him anyway because my collar would zap me into tomorrow if I did. So, we headed upstairs to see if any other members of the family's toy collection had a vendetta against my humans. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slightly updated to help with clarity and flow. The advice came from FlipSpring, and was much, much appreciated.


	2. Investigators and Rubber Duckies

Arada and Pin-Lee set up a magical barrier downstairs just in case we didn't catch all the baddies in this Victorian hell before they tried to escape. I could feel it, and it wasn't pleasant since I'm technically also on the list of things that can't enter magical barriers.

We found two more haunted objects in the house.

The first was a toy train in one of the kids' rooms, and the other turned out to be an ugly rubber duck in the attic. Ratthi wove runes to bind the demon-infested toys while I prevented them from running off. By the time he was done with the duck, the others had joined us and performed their standard rituals. 

The duck got me good on the way out, stupid little quacker. 

I was still limping as we were walking out. The humans stopped on the house's front porch (now that it was no longer haunted) and stared at me again. I'd turned back into a wolf pretty much immediately after speaking with Ratthi because it was just easier not to talk to the lovely people I'd probably never see again. And frankly, ten more steps and I could leave, but on the creaking, sunny porch, the contract was still in effect. 

"Wait!" Ratthi again, gesturing now. 

Dr. Mensah paused, so of course, everyone else did, too. "What is it?"

"What about the guardian?"

Overse squeezed Arada's hand, and I had a sneaking suspicion they'd been talking about me downstairs during the toy hunt. The words hung in the air between the humans, threatening. 

"We'll need to speak to the department head," Mensah answered.

"So they can blow us off again?" Arada was pissed off. I wondered what the department had done to earn her ire.

Personally, I would prefer that the humans left the whole situation well enough alone. The department takes a dim view of any situation that brought attention to any of its less-than-upstanding practices. No matter what the investigators said, I'd be punished, they'd be blacklisted, and that was usually the end of the story. With clients, it was better to be forgettable.

Pin-Lee said what I was thinking aloud. "I don't expect any positive outcomes from talking to the higher-ups." And then, she added, "We signed a multi-month contract. We'll see the guardian again."

"That's not what I meant," Ratthi grumbled. "Elephant in the room, yeah?"

There wasn't one. They'd accepted a contract that included a security guardian, and they got one. No one was required to explain to them how guardians are created. I think Mensah must've known because she'd tried to get out of having me. But the rest of the team had met me on-site six hours ago for the first time, and I'd been a wolf for the majority of our short acquaintance. 

I decided that this cringy conversation had gone on long enough, and I wanted to leave. I stepped away from the group and changed forms so I could talk to them. In comparison, destroying demons and sending ghosts to their final resting places were easier. 

I find talking to people hard. It's not because of the collar, although the momentary pity is fucking frustrating. Average human sees guardians on TV, and we’re unstoppable golems when portrayed on there—monsters barely under anyone’s control. The people I’ve worked with before expected me to be some violent beast from under the bed. So, talking to people with those expectations is awkward.It's mostly because people have this weird notion of what a guardian is supposed to be, and I definitely don't live up to those expectations. 

Also, my clothes were torn from being nearly skewered, my hip hurt, and I really wanted to go back to my cell and hide there for a while, in the dark.

"You should report that this job is complete," I told the humans.

"Will you be alright?" Dr. Mensah asked.

Did I look as bad as I thought I did? I was bleeding, wasn't I? I hate that. "Yes, ma'am."

"Are you a werewolf?" Baradwahj asked.

_ No, I'm a tomato _ . The collar tightened uncomfortably, although that could've been my imagination, too. "Yes, ma'am."

"How long have you been a guardian?" Overse asked curiously. 

I wasn't sure exactly, but somewhere near a decade sounded about right. I wasn't keeping track because, you know, it's not like there's an end date on my employment. "More than six years, ma'am."

The humans looked stunned. 

"We'd like to speak with you," Dr. Mensah said. "Would you be amenable to meeting with us at a restaurant in a few hours?"

I probably growled or made some other obvious facial expression that revealed exactly how much I didn't want to talk because she raised her hands and added, "Only if you want to. We just want to talk."

Nope, no, thank you. Not happening. I don't want to talk. "Yes, ma'am." Oh, for fuck's sake.

Arada handed me a card with an address on it and a time. I stared at it for a moment, like it would bite, and wondered why I had agreed to meet with these hopeless romantics. The group finally dispersed, and I headed home. 

Home is a tiny cell in the basement of a department-owned pound for all things that creep and crawl in the night (that the department finds useful and profitable enough to keep alive). It's in the dingy part of town. Around here, magic is more common so fewer people questioned the weird and impossible things that occasionally wandered the halls.

Most humans ignore obviously magical things. It’s easier than asking questions. And asking the wrong questions lands your name on all the wrong lists.

That day, I passed by a couple of kids playing basketball on a worn-down court and at least one drunk idiot who was ranting about the state of the world.  _ Yeah, pal, tell me all about it. _

The security guard at the front door gave me one withering look and said, "Don't bleed on the carpet."

I almost turned human just to flip him off but decided it wasn't worth the wasted energy. Andre was an asshole, and no amount of poking on my part was going to remove the stick lodged permanently up his ass. 

The building had three basement levels with dorms all the way at the bottom. I took the stairs and made a beeline for the shared shower stalls. The cuts and bruises were already healing when I turned on the water and stepped under the steaming hot spray. I still hissed when the heat irritated all the new injuries. 

Once I was no longer covered in blood or demonic fluids—and smelled suspiciously like disinfectant and lavenders—I walked to my cell and closed the door. Cameras were probably watching, but I didn't care. It was nothing they hadn't seen before, and wolves aren't exactly shy. 

I turned on some quiet music on my cell phone and crawled into bed. In another couple of hours, I'd be fine. Well, still annoyed at myself for agreeing to meet with the investigative team I was supposed to give zero fucks about. But, otherwise, fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Updated for clarity and flow (and spelling errors).  
> A huge thank you to FlipSpring for reading through this and giving me so many good suggestions!


	3. Restaurant Snake

Several hours later, the alarm on my phone went off, so I dragged myself out of bed and got dressed. Andre was still dutifully guarding the front door when I came upstairs, for at least some definition of guarding. I'm not sure what idiot would try to rob a building that housed monsters, but here we are.

"You heading somewhere?" the bastard drawled. 

_No, just here to spend time with your charming personality_ , I thought. "My clients requested a meeting."

"Don't cause any trouble." Andre liked to remind people of the rules. "Be back by curfew."

I gave him a mocking salute and went to meet the investigative team. All I knew about them at that point was that they were my clients and had signed a multi-month contract with the department. They got access to the Archives in exchange for banishing some of the monsters they came across, and I was supposed to help keep them safe. 

They were already at the restaurant and seated by the time I arrived. It was one of those fancy, sit-down places that served mouthwatering food on cute, little dishes. Under any other circumstances, it wasn't an establishment affordable to a were-creature. 

I got plenty of amused and puzzled glances from patrons and staff when I walked inside. Everyone else was dressed in business casual, and here I was in ripped jeans and some punk-band shirt that came from a thrift store. I glared at the receptionist, who asked me if my party was already here.

I almost turned and left when Ratthi spotted me, and then it was too late to disappear. I came over and sat down and tried to behave like a civilized person. The whole situation felt like a terrible idea and was getting worse by the second. 

"Good evening," Dr. Mensah said. "Thank you for meeting with us. I imagine you don't normally take your work home."

"Hello."

Staring at the tablecloth helped with the panic a little. I reached out with what might loosely be termed magic and let it sink into the floor. Were-creatures have some magical abilities, usually a form of wild magic. We're stupidly unpredictable and dangerous because of it. 

When I didn't volunteer anything else, Pin-Lee said, "We wanted to make sure you were OK, for one. And we wanted to consult with you on a couple of things."

"Yeah, we were worried," Arada confirmed, "because you got hurt."

A waiter brought over a menu and placed it on the table in front of me. He smelled like mold inside an old cellar, but when I glanced up at him, he looked normal enough—some short dude in a tie with dark circles under his eyes. 

"I'm fine." _I have these two words down!_

It was a stupid conversation, and I had nothing to contribute. I really should've just shut my mouth, ordered something from the ridiculous menu, picked at it, and let the investigators ramble. It's a basic survival strategy, as far as I'm concerned.

Instead, I blurted out, "I don't like it here," because it was far too much light and cutlery, and they were friendly people, and they shouldn't have to deal with a werewolf.

"Have we done something wrong?" Mensah asked quietly. 

I opened my mouth to tell her that they were nice and I didn't belong here when a loud crash echoed through the entire restaurant. The smell of mold permeated the air, followed by screams.

My magic alerted me to the presence of something large and _dark_ somewhere in the back. Whatever it was slithered through the kitchen and then out into the dining room. It looked like some cross between a snake and a swamp monster, complete with moss that grew across its limbs and chest.

"What the hell is that?" Gurathin asked, looking at me.

"How the fuck should I know?" I retorted. 

The creature growled at the nearest patron, grabbed one in two of its six arms, and started gnawing on the man. Its jaw dislocated when its mouth opened, and everything about that looked wrong.

I pushed back my chair and grabbed the nearest knife, one of those stupid butter knives that would do absolutely nothing against the monster's scaly skin. 

"Guardian, wait!" Mensah also got up and lightning arced between her outstretched fingers.

"Don't get too close to it," I warned them and then lunged at the asshole.

Step one: get the squishy human out of its jaws. 

The injured man was screaming, which up close, sounded painfully loud. My hearing is better than most humans, so ear-splitting noises _hurt_. I stabbed the monster's right eye with my butter knife. It screeched and let the human go, so I grabbed him with both hands and yanked him as far away as I could, dodging arms in the meantime. 

"Over here!" Pin-Lee was pointing where she and some of the bystanders were hiding behind a tipped-over table. 

I placed the bleeding human on the ground.

"It got you." She was pointing at a new cut on my arm.

"It's fine." 

There was no step two.

I got back up, grabbed another knife, and went for the obnoxious magical snake again. The monster wasn't happy to see me, and it batted at me hard enough to send me flying into a table. I landed with a sickening crash, but meh, that's not enough to stop a guardian. 

"You'll have to do better than that," I told the monster and transformed into a wolf. 

Now, this was easier because I had all the sharp weapons I could ever want. The monster screeched again as I got a running start and lunged myself at it across half a dining room. We landed on the floor and rolled for a moment before I came out on top. The scaly bastard unhinged its jaw again and tried to bite at me, and maybe it would've done more damage, but suddenly Ratthi was standing over its head. 

The master magician pointed his wand at the creature's forehead and began chanting. I didn't know what spell he was going to use, but the bastard I was growling at sure did because it tried to grab at him. Then, Mensah shocked the monster with a burst of electrical current; it hit me, too, and I yelped.

She looked horrified, even though it had been an accident. "Sorry, Guardian."

Ratthi finished his spell, cast it, and it blasted a dime-sized hole through the creature's head. It stopped twitching and went limp. I jumped off the snake and took a few cautious steps away from the corpse. 

Not bad for a surprise attack.

Mensah came over and knelt beside me. "You don't have to change again, but stay with us, OK? We'll take care of this."

I nodded.

One of the cowering receptionists came over to talk with the humans, and sirens wailed in the distance. Anxiety reared its ugly head—I'm not supposed to get into trouble outside of a contract. If the department found out, I would be in a world of hurt.

I started to turn, so I could make a hasty escape before the cops showed up. 

But then, Mensah said something to the rest of her group, and they came over to stand beside me with me while she and Pin-Lee dealt with the officers. No one asked me any questions, and when one of the officers tried to come over, Pin-Lee deftly diverted his attention.

Ratthi whispered, "That was scary."

Overse nodded and took Arada's hand again. "And we didn't get any dinner, either."


	4. Magical Artifact

The enormous ballroom had been decorated by people with more money than common sense. Long refreshment tables stood against one wall, overflowing with food I couldn’t identify. Humans mingled in the middle of the wide-open space, surrounded by haphazardly placed tables and chairs. An auctioneer and two of her employees milled around on the stage at the front of the room.

Dr. Mensah and the rest of the investigative team sat at a table toward the back. I lay under it where other humans couldn't readily step on me. They had smuggled me in as Baradwahj's support animal, and I preferred that to dressing up and coming to this "party" as a human.

I wasn't the weirdest creature in the room—one of the guests had a miniature pony—but with any luck, I was the only one with access to dark magical talents. I didn't belong here any more than I had at the restaurant, but at least this qualified as work.

A tall woman in a shimmering dress stepped up to the podium and began introducing the auction. All of the items up for auction tonight came from the collection of some famous, eclectic writer who was now dead. Honestly, I didn't care whose stuff this was or why it was being sold. 

I was more concerned that everyone's perfume made the room smell like a sick interpretation of a meadow. My nose hurt just thinking about it.

Ratthi tried to educate me on how auctions worked—I'd never been to one before. At first, the items on display looked mundane. They sold for a lot of money (in my limited understanding), though, so maybe this writer was amazing or something.

Then, the hosts brought out a tall and worn wooden chair, and instantly the temperature in the room dropped by a couple of degrees. Overhead lights flickered briefly as if they had trouble staying on.

I nuzzled Mensah's foot under the table. 

"I know," she whispered back, shivering.

"Is that the thing?" Arada wanted to know.

"Most likely," Ratthi whispered back, leaning toward Arada to explain. "The Guardian thinks so, too."

I could see the seething dark magic wrapped around the chair pretty clearly, so it was more than just an educated guess. Other than the evil aura, it didn't look all that special. According to the stuttering auctioneer, the writer had done his best work while sitting on this monstrosity. I could guess why.

Pin-Lee pulled out a tablet and was scrolling through a document. "Go ahead and bid on it, and we'll see if we can do this without causing a scene."

My gut said there was absolutely no way that thing was going to let my humans anywhere near itself. It was a creature of the dark, and the investigators were brimming full of light. As soon as its spreading magical tendrils found us, it would know exactly who and what it was dealing with. 

But whatever. Maybe high society evil had different standards. 

"Remember, the department wants this thing alive," Pin-Lee reminded us.

The bidding began, and I sat up to pay attention. The numbers sounded outrageous—I couldn't understand why anyone would spend money on a chair when there were perfectly good tree stumps outside. Sure, there was a fae creature attached to the artifact (probably the kind that dealt in soul bargains and supported the fine arts), but still... It was a chair.

Suddenly, the magic surrounding the wooden seating implement expanded ten-fold. The lights in the ballroom flickered a few times and then surrendered and went out completely. 

"What the hell," someone muttered at one of the other tables.

I got up and crawled out from under our table because this is usually when shit hits the fan. 

The chair wobbled dramatically—I swear, half the monsters I've encountered have a flair for drama—and then shot up into the air. For a moment, it hung there, building up suspense, and then shattered into a million fucking splinters. Wood rained down on the participants, even though most of them couldn't see much of anything in the dark.

The fae let out a giggle as the humans in the front row of tables screamed as wooden shards penetrated their skins. The creature remained invisible, hidden from the humans by its own magic and the sudden darkness.

Mensah let out a yelp, and all of my clients ducked. That was the safe and sane reaction to a suddenly unpredictable situation. It's not what happens in the best adventure novels, but my clients aren't stalwart adventurers. They're a group of paranormal investigators whose magical skills are mostly theoretical. They're not crime fighters; they don't go places to do battle with the forces of evil. 

I changed forms so I could help them get away. "You need to leave," I whispered, "immediately. The door is a couple hundred feet behind you."

"What about—" Ratthi's sentiment was lost in another round of screaming as the fae decided to set part of the stage on fire.

"I got this. You need to get to safety."

"It's you we're worried about," Arada whisper-yelled at me.

I actually paused for a moment because that made no sense.  _ This is my job. This is literally why you brought me here _ . I didn't say that, though. Instead, I said, "That thing is a high-ranking member of the fae court. It's not safe here."

I was hoping the humans would just listen to me, but I didn't have time to keep arguing. The longer the fae rampaged around here, the more damage it would do. 

I could smell the fucker even as it materialized. It smelled like the forest, actually, like places where I'd lived before, like home.

Right then, it was sitting at a table.  It had tossed a human out of a chair, sat down in the human's place, and was nibbling on appetizers. It saw me and got up, silks floating lazily around it in ribbons.

The creature was about five feet tall, with pointy ears and butterfly wings. And then it opened its mouth and revealed hideously sharp, pointed teeth. This fae looked like it had stepped out of a fairy tale and into my nightmares. 

"You look lost, little wolf," it taunted.

Talking to a member of the high-court fae is just asking for trouble. So, I turned into a wolf and stared at the asshole while around me, humans scrambled to get out of the way. The fae dispelled the magic that made it hard to see for normal humans. As far as it was concerned, no one posed much of a danger to it—it was a master of wild magic and, thus, the scariest thing in the room. 

"You wanna play, puppy?" it laughed.

I growled at it. 

"Looks like you do." It glared at me with pitiless eyes. "I wonder where your master is, little pup."

I had high hopes that my humans wouldn't reveal themselves, but there was Ratthi with, "It's not a puppy. It's a person."

Fuck me.

The fairy chuckled. “There they are."

I did the thing I usually do when faced with a monster. I got a running start, leaped across a table, and lunged at the fae noble. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A huge thank you to FlipSpring for all the help.


	5. Stubborn Fae

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tinkerbell goes down!

The fairy dodged my attack and rose into the air. 

Since werewolves can't fly, I couldn't exactly follow the winged asshole. But, if it thought that taking to the air would somehow protect it from me, the noble was sorely mistaken. I jumped onto the nearest empty table—there were quite a few of them now that the humans had time to process the attack and were making an effort to get away.

Wild magic pooled around and under me. It was inky black and tangible. I wouldn’t recommend touching it, but I’ve met humans dumb enough to try. When I willed it, it formed into spears of darkness that shot out at the fae.

It had more trouble dodging those. I managed to get in a couple of good hits before it counter attacked. It flung wood and other debris in my general direction, and I had to concentrate to avoid getting smacked in the face with various blunt objects, including a couple of spoons and at least one piece of bacon.

"Be careful," Ratthi yelled from the back.

He and the rest of the team were busy preparing a containment ritual, something that would allow us to catch the fairy without causing catastrophic damage. From what I could tell, preparations would take another several minutes. 

My job was to keep it busy until my humans were ready for it. 

I could hear Arada and Overse in the background, getting the bystanders out of the room and securing the doors with their wards. Something about them cutting off the fairy's escape paths enraged the noble. 

It went for Arada first, diving face-first toward the human. I jumped in between the white mage and the fairy and swiped at the fairy. It blocked my attack with a wave of its own magic and sent me flying into the nearest wall. I yelped on impact but got back up and went after the flying freak again.

"Why do you let them yank you around?" the fairy asked and giggled again.

_ Fuck you, Tinkerbell _ , I thought as I chased it across the ballroom. 

We crashed into each other at the far end, knocking over the podium in the process. I pawed at the fairy and it slapped me across the face with magic, and then wrapped its black, inky tendrils around my snout.

Fuck you.

Claws out, I swiped at the monster's chest, forcing it to let go so it could defend itself. It rallied and went for me again, slicing up my arms with random knives it grabbed off the floor. I was about to use my jaws when Mensah called out.

"Over here, Guardian!"

I pinned the fairy and wasn't planning on letting it go.

"We can't do this with you there," Pin-Lee was trying to explain in the middle of a fight that had just trashed a room half the size of a football field.

I growled at her. 

I had no idea why the investigators were even hesitating. Containing and subduing the flying asshole was literally our entire reason for coming to this mind-numbingly boring auction. It didn't occur to me to think about the ritual. 

Arada and Overse rushed over and grabbed each other's hands. That's how their particular magic worked, and I think they also liked each other. So maybe that was an added bonus. Either way, bright strands of light emanated from their hands and began wrapping around the fairy. 

"We don't want to hurt you by accident," Pin-Lee said as Mensah and Ratthi started chanting. "Just trust me this one time."

In addition to the warning, she grabbed my collar and pulled me out of the way.

The humans’ spell missed me, but the moment Pin-Lee touched me, I felt like I’d been set on fire. I turned human in her arms because fuck, that hurt. Even helpful contact with the binding was enough to scramble my brains for a minute.

Pin-Lee had no idea that would happen, and I didn't blame her. I was just suddenly dead weight. "Oh shit," she muttered and grabbed an arm instead, steadying me.

I felt more than saw the end result of Mensah's spell. It wrapped around the high-ranking fae with a kind of merciless finality. Even at a distance, the pure light stung where I was standing a little too close. The creature stopped struggling and went still, its gaze angry.

"A puppet," the monster said in its tinny voice. "What will you do when they cut your strings?"

I sat down. My chest and arms hurt, and I was bleeding, and my brain was still trying to sort out balance and direction. The humans came over, and Ratthi knelt in front of me.

"Our sincerest apologies, Guardian," Pin-Lee said.

"For what?" I couldn't figure it out.

They were staring at me, and I had no idea why. It took a moment to figure out that the fairy had shredded my shirt to actual ribbons, and they could see my chest. There were scars from other encounters, those where things had gone significantly worse. Or where the humans didn't care who or what they hurt in pursuit of their bounty.

Ratthi reached out and offered me a hand. "Do you think you can get up?"

"Probably. Do I have to?"

"Yeah," the human said softly. "How about some real dinner? I think we can all use a good burger after that."

Arada looked at Dr. Mensah, and the older woman sighed. "Guardian, I think we've been dancing around the subject of your continued well-being."

"I'm fine," I said as my stomach growled.

"You're half-starved to death, not to mention everything else," the leader of the group—who might actually be more like adventurers than I was imagining—told me. 

I looked up at her. "A burger would be nice."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Beta-read by the awesome FlipSping!


	6. Uncomfortable Moment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Burgers are had. Magic is discussed.

Pin-Lee found a nearby diner, and we were sitting on one of the benches outside, eating burgers. I was wearing one of Gurathin's shirts since it was the only one anyone had to spare, and it was still too short. I'm not bulky so much as tall and lanky and apparently made entirely of limbs. At some point, the evening had turned cold, and I shivered when a chilly breeze swept through the streets. 

Dr. Mensah was idly fingering the crystal that currently contained the fae noble. At this point, the tiny winged creature was about the same size as Tinkerbell, and it glared at us every chance it got. 

"What'll happen to it?" Mensah asked.

I realized belatedly that she was talking to me. I'd been shoving food in my mouth and stopped long enough to answer. "Who knows? It's a dark creature."

"It's very much alive," Baradwahj pointed out.

Yeah, so was I, and here we were. "Creatures tainted with dark magic don't have any rights. The department can do whatever it wants." What it would probably do was confine it somewhere for a while and then, eventually, get around to deciding how to handle the situation.

"Like they did to you?"

I looked over at the doctor and closed my eyes. Suddenly, I wasn't hungry anymore. "Yeah."

"Is that what happened? Did the department send hunters after you?" 

"I don't want to talk about it." I hunched my shoulder and grabbed a french fry. I was sulking and knew it, but it was hard not to get defensive when your hide was being discussed. 

Mensah started to reach toward me and then stopped and dropped her hand to her lap. I think she knew what had caused my earlier malfunction and was acutely aware of the reasons behind it. I'm not sure how much the department explains to contract holders, but I assume there's some minimum amount they have to disclose about guardians for us to be utilized even somewhat effectively.

"We could return the fae to its realm," Volescu suggested. "The ritual's not complicated, all things considered." As an expert on obscure rituals, he would know. 

"If we don't bring Grumpy over here back to the department, they will blacklist us for breaking the contract," Pin-Lee said. "Not that I mind or anything, but it's something to consider. We're obligated to follow their procedures if we want continued access to the Archives."

The group looked at each other meaningfully. At one point, they mentioned that they'd all worked together before, but this was their first contract with the department. Whatever country they were from didn't have the same laws, and they were frustrated with how things functioned around here.

I got up and threw away my wrappers. The urge to leave was overwhelming, but I was still technically working, and the collar wouldn't let me get too far. The humans were staring at me when I came back. 

"You're free to go," Mensah said.

Well, that was easy. I turned into a wolf and was half-way out of the seating area when I heard Ratthi say, quietly, "You're just going to let it leave?"

"What choice do we have?" Arada demanded. "The guardian doesn't want to be here. We're making it uncomfortable."

Almost before I could think about it, I slowed down and turned around. No one had ever concerned themselves with my welfare before. It gave me pause. The humans noticed the hesitation. 

Mensah got up and started walking in my direction. I don't know what I look like exactly, but I'm pretty sure it's somewhere in the range of terrifying. I mean, I'm basically a giant, full-grown wolf, something humans usually avoid.

Mensah didn't stop until she was practically standing in front of me. "We're worried about you," she said, had been saying for a week now. "Where we come from, there are different rules about magic. Would you mind walking with us?" The woman smiled at me. "It's not a command, but we're going to head back to our hotel, and we'd love your company."

I sat down on the pavement and waited while the other humans hastily got up and joined us. A few of the locals were giving them funny looks for talking to the wildlife. Most people choose not to see magic, so when I transform, they don't usually notice. It was maybe one of the few perks of being human and non-magical. 

Overse sighed, and her shoulders sagged. She leaned a little against her partner. "Frankly, I think we should find a ritual to free the guardian, instead, and leave this forsaken place. I hate the department, and I'm not a fan of the rest of the city, either."

"It said more than six years, remember," Arada whispered softly. 

"There has to be a way. If magic could be made permanent, really permanent, someone would've done it by now."

We walked down the street. Ratthi tried to pet me. I ducked out of his reach. He fake-lunged in my direction, so I head-butted him gently. Mensah laughed. 

Six years is the lifespan of a spell or a curse. After that, whatever you've created falls apart. That's why _good_ proprietors refresh their wards and why the paths between realms disintegrate. Because nothing magical lasts forever.

The one exception to the rule seems to be binding magic. Something about the mix of light and darkness—both kinds of magic are needed for the ritual—has a bizarre effect on the resulting curse. Instead of fading after six years, it becomes permanent. 

That was why Arada mentioned it, and I didn't contradict her. 


	7. Midnight Mission

I dropped the humans off at their hotel and checked the time. I still had at least an hour before I needed to head back, so I went looking for some lovely trees to sleep under. 

A few blocks from my destination, the collar buzzed. The sensation makes me think of bees inside my skull. When I checked my cell phone, there was a message from one of the supervisors. It directed all available guardians to head to the quarry at the edge of town. 

Damn, there went my chance to nap. 

\---

Our target turned out to be a dragon—or at least a lizard the size of a school bus with wings. It swiped at anyone who got too close and breathed fire when threatened, which was apparently all the damn time.

The quarry lay at the bottom of a ravine, and the beast was briefly trapped there because there wasn't room to take off. We came at the creature from the entrance, and it tried to turn us into barbecued guardians on arrival. 

The third time it singed off parts of my fur, I was pissed.

We surrounded the monster, and the other two guardians, who were also were-creatures, came at it from the sides. They were lightning fast in their attacks. The damn lizard was faster. Even with three of us trying to corner the beast, it held its own. 

The department-assigned supervisor was enraged. The human was so red, she was practically purple. 

"Do your damn jobs," she ordered like we were slacking off.

_ What the hell do you want us to do? _ I wanted to know. We couldn't get close enough to do any appreciable damage, and bound as we were, our magic paled in comparison to the monster. The supervisor could release us, technically, but she didn't want to because that made us too difficult to control.

At this rate, the dragon was going to turn us into mincemeat before we could do a damn thing to it.

We backed off to heal and then attacked all at once. 

I managed to get through its defenses, past the monster's fiery breath, but it came at a cost. The bastard lashed out and swiped at one of my companions hard enough to pierce through her belly. Blood and guts spilled everywhere as the werewolf wailed in agony. 

Meanwhile, I landed on the dragon's back and bit down into the soft flesh where it met the creature's neck hard enough to draw blood. The dragon shook its head and flapped its wings in an effort to throw me off. I bit the bastard again for hurting my teammate. 

The dragon roared in frustration and annoyance. When that had no effect, it abandoned attacking me and went after the injured guardian. 

Shit.

I dove off the lizard-monster and jumped between it and my hurt teammate. I growled at the giant beast and stood my ground. The third werewolf bounded up to me, eyeing the situation and trying to determine how to attack a monster we couldn't hope to stop.

The dragon batted at us, and it took a lot of effort to dodge its attacks effectively and still protect the downed guardian. Where I couldn't avoid the flames, it left angry welts on my skin. Frankly, the claws weren't pleasant, either. 

Behind me, the injured guardian whimpered and yipped as it slowly healed. 

"Stop that!" the supervisor yelled at us. I noticed she refused to enter the quarry and was giving orders from inside her vehicle. "Your primary objective is to take down the spawn!"

The collar around my neck sent a wave of agony through me, and I fell over from the sudden pain. The dragon had no idea what happened, but it used the momentary weakness to send me flying across the quarry. I landed on my side in a muddle puddle of dirt and rainwater. 

Just as I staggered back to my feet, reinforcements arrived. Two hunters with magic-infused arrows and powerful spells jumped out of their Humvee and targeted the beast. Half a dozen heavily-armed guardians appeared at the top of the quarry. Against a weakened dragon, it didn't take long. 

By the time I stumbled back into the fray, the lizard-spawn was contained. The injured werewolf was starting to get back up, but she looked terrible. She sniffed at me and yipped a quiet thanks. 

The supervisor came over to examine the damage. She tsked a few times and grabbed the guardian by the collar, paralyzing the wolf briefly. "Next time, don't screw up," the woman grumbled before she let the guardian go. 

The lizard contained, we were ordered to return to our cells. It was a long walk back into the city, but it gave me time to think.

\---

Before I knew it, it was noon, and a grating alarm was blaring in my ear. I was scheduled to meet with the investigators who wanted to check out a supposedly haunted house that they were interested in. Getting up, I looked down at myself and winced. 

Eeek. 

My clothes were charred beyond usability, and there was a new gash across my chest. My hip ached from the unfortunate flight, and bits of my skin still looked red from all the fire. 

I changed into a button-down shirt and cargo pants and then limped more than walked out of the department building. The guard on duty noted my departure but said nothing. 

Thankfully, Mensah and her team were waiting mere blocks away, and they had rented a van for the day. Not so thankfully, the moment they saw me, they stopped chatting and ran over. Which meant I looked worse than I felt. 

"What happened?" Ratthi demanded, looking nervously at the burns on my arms. 

"Got in an argument with a dragon," I muttered. "It was very persuasive."

I waited for Mensah to announce that I was now on-duty, but she gestured to the van instead. "Let's get going, shall we?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A huge thank you to FlipSpring for all the help with this chapter.


	8. Haunted Mansion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The guardian meets a mansion with more attitude than the loveable wolf.

Our destination turned out to be a mansion decorated to look way more pretentious than it had any right to be. Three stories tall and complete with a tower attached to one wing of the house, it stood alone among several acres of gardens and grassy plain. 

There was a car in the driveway when we arrived. 

I came out of the rented van first, in case the stranger in the other vehicle was actually a dangerous monster. Nope, it turned out the beady-eyed man was very much human, and the realtor. He had a clipboard and consulted it regularly while talking to my clients.

He introduced himself, and I promptly forgot his name because he announced loudly that he wouldn't be staying. Apparently, he took the haunting very personally and wanted nothing to do with whatever evil spirit resided in these walls. Mensah and the others chatted with the man while I turned into a wolf and sniffed around the perimeter of the mansion. 

"Right," I heard him say in a condescending tone that suggested he didn't believe Mensah and the others could actually help. "Well, here are the keys, and of course, you can always reach out to me."

He eyed me but didn't comment.

Out front, the gravel driveway smelled vaguely of wildflowers and thickly of gasoline. But closer to the front door, there was a different scent that I couldn't identify. Magic spooled on the steps — it wasn't the kind of light magic that the team used, but it wasn't my kind of magic, either. I'd never felt anything quite like it.

And there was a metric fuck ton of it. 

The humans came over to where I was standing, and the realtor drove off. Even they noted that something felt "different" about this house. Baradwahj and Volescu pulled out their tablets and began recording their observations while Mensah leafed through a book of ancient deities. 

I nudged at the door, and Ratthi opened it for me.

The foyer stood empty but not deserted. There wasn't a speck of dust anywhere in sight, as though the previous owners had left fifteen minutes ago. Nevermind that, according to Mr. Beady-Eyes, the house has been unoccupied for the better part of a year. The realtor had been extremely miffed that it had somehow managed to scare away several prospective buyers.

I padded across the marble floor and wandered into a huge kitchen. As I stepped over the threshold, the overhead lights flickered on, and the coffee maker beeped. 

"Please be careful," Mensah said from the doorway.

The group set down their bags on the island counter and took out cameras and other observation equipment. 

Meanwhile, I headed up a circular staircase to the second floor. A long hallway stretched in both directions, and all the doors were closed. While I was standing there, sniffing a weird-looking rug, one of the doors at the far end began to slowly swing open.

When a house is haunted, sometimes that just happens. Usually, not quite so deliberately, but I'd been in other homes with similar problems. 

I wandered over to the open door and peeked inside to find a sitting room with several tall bookshelves and a low, Japanese-style table in the middle. It was only after I came all the way into the room and examined the shelves that things got weird. 

_ What are you? _ The voice sounded deadly calm. 

I turned around and looked around the room, but it was definitely empty.  _ No one. _

_ You're a magical creature, like me. _ The voice wasn’t asking. It had made a statement with no room for contradictions.

_ Uh, yeah, no. Nothing like you. _

A large mass of magic and energy briefly appeared in the corner. Whatever it was had enough sheer willpower to turn me into dust if it wanted. And then, just as quickly, the entity was gone.

I bolted from the room, but the voice followed. That it was basically reading my mind didn't register until I was most of the way downstairs and panting. There was a monster here who could make good on any threat it chose to issue.

_ What are you? _ It repeated. 

_ A wolf, _ I answered finally. I didn't want to go back to the kitchen and give the house any ideas about my clients. 

_ Why are you here? Are your friends going to buy this house? _

_ What? No. And they're not my friends. _ I shook my head to make my point.

_ What are they? _

_ Clients. _

I could almost feel it rolling its eyes. It sounded sarcastic and amused when it said,  _ Wolves don't have clients. _

_ Guardians do _ , I admitted.

_ I thought that's what you might be. You're full to the brim with magical energy. I've never seen a guardian like you. I'm surprised you haven't done anything about the guardian thing. You don't look like you take orders well. _

_ Shut up, _ I grumbled silently and stopped in a doorway. There was a study room on the other side, complete with a piano and the hookups for a laptop.  _ There's nothing to be done about the 'guardian thing' as you put it. _

_ Sure there is, _ the house told me. It wasn't arguing. It was stating facts.

_ Fuck you! _

The house laughed.  _ Want to see something cool? _

_ Uh, sure?  _

I wasn't sure I wanted to see what this house thought was cool, but at this point, I didn't know what to think. Clearly, the house wasn't haunted so much as possessed by something impossibly large, clearly sentient, and extremely dangerous. And this something was a complete asshole.

Quietly, I added,  _ Don't hurt my humans, OK? _

_ Of course not. I know how guardians work, you silly creature. Go on, follow the lights. Trust me, you'll like it. _

The cool thing turned out to be a large and beautifully arranged indoor greenhouse and garden. The size of several rooms, it was completely enclosed and put together for beauty rather than consistency, with circular and oddly-shaped flower beds on either side of a meandering path. A small tree stood at the far end, next to a lavender bush. 

It smelled like heaven, and I wanted nothing more than to go and roll around in the dirt

_ What do you think? _ The house asked.

_ It's pretty. _

_ Your humans won't find anything in this mansion. Trust me, others have tried and failed. I'm good at covering my tracks. _

I changed forms—there was no way for me to fight this entity—and sat down on a nearby bench. "Why are you here, anyway?"

_ Surveillance, _ the house said,  _ and I'm waiting for my humans. They'll come back soon. _

"They've been gone a long time."

_ They were tasked with a complicated mission, and they said it might take time before they could return.  _ The strange house sounded almost melancholy. I wondered just how much it missed its humans. 

"Well, the paranormal investigators will look around, take some photos, and then probably leave," I said.

_ Not if I can convince them to stay. _

"Why would they do that?" I wanted to know. "Why would you even want them here?"

_ Your humans want to free you. I want someone to find my humans. I'm sure we can help each other, whether you like it or not. _

I glared at the nearest wall. "That's dumb. My humans are smarter than that."

Famous last words.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A huge thank you to FlipSpring for continuing to read this!  
> Also, all constructive criticism is totally welcome.


	9. Asshole Residence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The investigators have a picnic. The mansion meddles. You know, a normal Tuesday.

My humans wandered through the ground floor of the possessed house mainly as a group. Following proper protocol, they had their wands out and spoke in low, even tones as they noted down their observations. I walked a few feet ahead of the team, expecting trouble around every corner and behind any closed door.

At first, the house behaved. Doors didn't slam, and the furniture stayed put. For a little while, the investigators started to doubt whether the place was even haunted. 

Not the first time I've heard that. Humans spook easily. Anything from poor electrical wiring to a bad plumbing installation can send them packing. But this mansion had been lovingly put together, and it showed. The baseboards were trimmed to size, and elegant designs adorned most of the doors.

This wasn't the sort of house someone would just abandon. At least that was the team's opinion. Since I'd never lived in a mansion, I could neither agree nor disagree. 

In the back of the mansion, the group walked into a two-story library. 

The room must have been someone’s pride and joy, the way it was decorated. Tall shelves covered most of the walls, crammed full of books in all shapes and sizes. Meticulous labels helped organize the collection. More books overflowed between them and stood stacked on top of a large, wooden desk. A couple of plush loveseats stood in one corner, also surrounded by piles of reading materials. 

Pin-Lee looked like she was in her own personal heaven, and even Dr. Mensah appeared impressed. The group was looking away when one of the books on the desk slid out of its pile and flipped open. 

_ What's that about?  _ I asked the house because I knew the moving book was its doing.

_ Oh, you know, some light motivation. _ The house sounded gleeful and excited. It had two modes of communication: sarcasm and outright villainy.

I didn't need to ask any more questions. I knew what would motivate Mensah and the rest of her team. It was either a good mystery, a new spell, or anything related to what they were calling my 'dilemma.' I hoped their self-preservation instincts kicked in, but the house had been so mellow and welcoming that they couldn't resist.

_ Damn you, _ I told the house.  _ You're an asshole. _

_ Says the furry creature who's lying to its clients about the scope of its problems. _

_ I'm their guardian, not a charity case, _ I retorted.

_ You're their friend. _

_ Guardians don't have friends. It's forbidden.  _ And then, because I couldn't think of a better way to make my point, I shared some of my memories with the house. They were incomplete and raw, but I figured a mind-reading entity would have no trouble parsing them.

For the next ten minutes, the spirit stayed quiet. Baradwahj picked up whatever book the house had "recommended," and they marched back into the kitchen. 

Arada and Overse grabbed a giant picnic basket, and the group headed outside in the mansion’s immaculately maintained gardens. Ratthi stretched out a couple of colorful blankets on the grass, under the shade of a couple of ancient trees. Then, Ratthi patted a spot next to him, and I came over to lie down between him and Dr. Mensah.

I thought about switching forms. I’d seen the way humans eyed me when I ate as a wolf, like they assumed my next bite was meant for them. I don’t generally eat people, but sometimes I’d show off my canines just to make a point. When I could get away with it. 

Midway through that thought, Arada pulled out a large bowl out of their basket of holding, filled it with water, and then put it in front of me. She also got out a couple of cow bones wrapped up in some butcher paper.

“We brought tasties for everyone,” Overse explained as she passed out plates to everyone else. “Even you, Guardian.”

I felt awkward at first because humans aren’t usually nice to me like this, but the bones smelled delicious. Before I knew it, Ratthi had unwrapped one for me, and I lay there, licking at the tasty morsel and occasionally gnawing at it. No one seemed to mind—instead of weird, horrified looks, Mensah and Arada looked pleased with themselves.

And Ratthi kept trying to pet me when he thought I was occupied.

_ Your humans are your friends, _ the mansion’s supernatural occupant butted into my thoughts.

My thoughts turned dark.  _ They're clients, _ I protested.  _ In another two months, their contract will be over, and they'll go home. _

_ That doesn't make them any less your friends. I think you just don't like the idea of having friends. _ The house tried to sound reasonable, and it was irritating. I was suddenly irritated. 

_ You should tell them the truth, _ it added.

_ Don’t stick your nose in my business, asshole. Why are you so invested in what happens to my humans, anyway? _

_ Because you're like me, _ it answered, and the raw honesty in its tone stunned me. I stopped gnawing on my delicious bone and sat up. The humans stared at me, confused. 

_ How am I like you? _

_ We're both animated by magic. I'm better, of course. You can't compare your magic to mine, per se. But still, in comparison to humans, you're no slouch.  _

Deciding I didn’t care about the entity said, I lay back down on the blanket and put my head on top of my paws. The world smelled of mowed grass and distant rain. I didn't think the asshole residence was right, but it had a point. Or at least, it thought it did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FlipSpring has kindly helped beta-read this (so mind-reading is no longer required to interpret this chapter).


	10. Bribes and Threats

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The mansion has an idea. The guardian wants a nap.

The investigators decided that the only right thing to do was stay the night and see if anything untoward happened after sunset. They also scoured the library and had half a dozen books scattered across the counter in the kitchen. 

I wished they would take it for granted that whatever haunted this house wasn't going anywhere and move on to more straightforward projects. Surely, there had to be less aloof monsters out there in need of corralling. Unfortunately for me, this group didn't do anything by half-measures. If they decided to investigate a weird house, they would do so until they ran out of steam and resources. 

_I'll keep leaving clues, you know._ The house sounded delighted.

 _What the fuck do you want from me?_ I wanted to know.

I'd patrolled the interior and the gardens twice since our arrival and found jack shit. Volescu wove several wards into the walls of the rooms they planned on using, which did absolutely nothing to keep the mansion's resident entity out of their stuff. It was fucking unstoppable. 

_I want your help finding some humans. Eight of them, to be precise._

_And how am I supposed to do that?_

The house didn't even pause. _I'll disable your binding temporarily and give you some things that belonged to them. All you have to do is track them down._

 _They could be halfway across the world by now._ This was the weirdest fucking conversation of my life.

_I have reason to believe they're somewhere in the city._

I got up from where I'd been guarding the humans and padded over to the indoor garden. Dim, diffuse light gave the whole room an ethereal feel to it, straight out of some magic book. A glow-in-the-dark plant was slowly blooming delicately in one of the flower beds. 

_What are you, exactly?_ I asked after finding a comfortable spot under the miniature tree and laying down.

_A house, obviously._

I scoffed. _You're clearly a resident of this place, and you're an asshole, but you're definitely not just a mansion._

The house said nothing for almost fifteen minutes, long enough that I'd started drifting off to sleep. It was late, and I could see a full moon hanging high in the night sky through the garden's majestic skylights. I'd missed sleeping on warm soil, surrounded by dirt and grass, with the cool breeze for company. 

_The quicker you find my humans, the faster I'll give your humans the book they want, the faster you can leave._

I opened one eye. _You're lonely,_ I said, surprised. I considered refusing—the house could find someone else to yank around, and it wasn't my client—but the thought bothered me. Whatever it was, the asshole troublemaker missed its people. The way I'd probably miss Dr. Mensah and her crew when they left. 

_Fine._ If I had no choice, might as well get started. _Show me your friends' things._

_Sleep first._

_I'm fine._

_Of course, you are. Sleep anyway. Tomorrow, we can go over the details._

_You're weird,_ I told the house, probably not for the first time. _If you wanted help, you could just ask the humans. They have resources and expertise, and their magic is more in line with what you need anyway._

The annoying entity didn’t answer—it was going for “mysterious” and had landed on pain-in-the-ass—so I closed my eyes again and felt a butterfly settle on my nose. Eventually, I drifted off to sleep.

They say tainted creatures don't dream—it's common wisdom among magical scholars—and they're wrong. I dreamed all the time, mostly about the forests of my childhood and the very first humans I'd encountered. 

They had spears and arrows tipped with magic, and they came for me in my dreams. Their protective clothing bore the logos of the department, and I hated those the most. Before the hunters and their logos, I had barely understood that humans existed. After them, there had been nothing but more humans and cold, hard, dark cells.

 _Hey, wake up,_ said the house.

I opened my eyes and sniffed. _What?_

_You had a nightmare._

_Yeah, that'll happen. Either let me sleep or tell me about your friends._

The house lingered again, waiting for something, and finally said, _You can't tell anyone this? My humans would be in a lot more danger than they already are if anyone knew._

_Who am I going to tell?_

_I doubt the department includes this in their curriculum for new guardians, but most places in the world don't see a distinction between good and evil magic. Light and darkness are two sides of the same coin, and some of the most potent spells are combinations of the two._

I shrugged. _They don't, but what's your point?_

_My humans believe that the way the department, and by extension, the government and people of this country treat dark creatures is abhorrent._

That gave me pause. I sat up and stretched. It was still dark outside, but through the windows, I could see the first rays of sunshine peeking eagerly above the horizon. The house shared with me something of how it saw its rooms and hallways. It was a hazy overhead view, but in it, I could see my humans in their sleeping bags in three of the unused bedrooms on the second floor.

_When the government quashed those riots last year, they couldn't sit by and watch. They wanted to do something. This isn't the first time they've intervened to save darklings, but this time, they haven't come back._

The loneliness in those words felt overwhelming. I whined and plodded quietly out of the garden. _I'll help you find your humans._

_I know you will, and thank you._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A huge thank you to FlipSpring for beta-reading this chapter!


	11. Amusement Park

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The guardian fails to appreciate cotton candy, and the house of mirrors definitely doesn't make the "must go again" list.

Not everything my humans do ends in tragedy. Occasionally, they have something resembling fun.

Digging in the Archives led them to one of those traveling amusement parks that sometimes took over parking lots for a week. I'd seen it at a distance but frankly, the screaming and the smell of cotton candy hadn’t instilled much confidence.

_ You'll hate it, _ the house informed me. It had given me a pendant through which it talked, sometimes. I was still getting used to the mansion’s constant presence. 

For once, the entity was uncharacteristically wrong. I didn't totally hate the amusement park. The place was loud and there were far too many people, plus it all smelled vaguely of vomit. But my humans had a good time, and that somehow made up for the rest of it.

Arada and Overse held hands and bought themselves giant hot dogs. Baradwahj kept stopping to doodle in her sketchbook. Even Gurathin, who as far as I knew didn't like anything that entailed having fun, was having a good time as he argued air resistance and thermodynamics with Volsecu.

I was walking alongside Dr. Mensah, on two legs at that.

"Have you ever been on a Ferris wheel?" she asked.

I shook my head. If wolves had been intended to leave the ground, we'd have wings. And seeing as how we didn't, I didn't want to chance it. It must've shown on my face because Mensah laughed and touched my shoulder.

"You look like I suggested an execution."

"Yeah, maybe."

"It's perfectly safe."

"It doesn't look safe." How was I supposed to protect my clients if they were going to get on something that rickety?

The house offered unhelpful information, starting with when Ferris wheels were invented and the statistics of accidents and injuries.

Mensah shook her head, clearly amused at the whole thing, and stopped in front of a food vendor. Money exchanged hands, and suddenly she had this puffy ball of sugar on a stick. It was a hideous shade of pink. 

"Want to try a bite?" she asked.

"Hell no!"

She snorted. "You could use more meat on your bones, you know."

"That... thing isn't food."

The rest of the group was up ahead, stopped in front of a small building that read "Fun House of Mirrors." These words didn't look right together, but fuck it, I don't understand humans and I couldn't care less what they considered fun.

"Over here!" Arada yelled, waving her hands.

Mensah waved back and started walking again. Normally, I do at most a half-assed version of my job. A decade in, I've come to the conclusion that humans are somehow drawn to danger, and frankly, stopping them is a waste of breath. But these humans... I didn't want anything to happen to them, so I'd been paying attention.

So, when a clown walked between me and them, I growled at the weirdly-dressed human. Except, it didn't smell human at all. It smelled... like me, like another were-creature. I didn't see a collar, so it wasn't a guardian. Just a free were-creature, one that hadn’t been caught by the department.

We’re supposed to report unregistered users of dark magic to the department. But, my binding almost never picked up when such a creature was around—it certainly wasn’t reacting now—and I had no plans of telling the department a damn thing. 

The clown planted itself in front of me. "Oh wow," it—correction, she—said, suddenly excited. "Oh my god, you're like the only other shapeshifter I've met. Shit! This is awesome. Oh, god, can I...uh, take a picture?"

The team noticed my absence and came over, and then, there was nowhere to run. I stood around awkwardly while they chatted with the other were-creature, whose name was Tasha and who turned into a bear but had started as a human. And then they exchanged phone numbers. And I was just standing there, trying not to look as uncomfortable as I felt. 

"You OK?" Tasha wanted to know all of a sudden.

"Fine."

"You look about a mile down the road from fine," she pointed out. "I can practically see you trying to crawl out of your skin."

"So?"

"So, you need to relax a little," she told me, oblivious.

Mensah carefully explained that I was currently working. Tasha patted my shoulder, and I almost jumped backward. It took effort to stay still and not bite the were-bear's hand off. 

"Stop that," I growled.

Tasha handed me a balloon, one of the many she was holding and giving out to kids. I just stood there, string in hand, and tried to puzzle out what the fuck I was supposed to do with it. You can't really kill anyone with a balloon, and you can't eat it. 

Ratthi said, "It's very purple."

I looked up at the floating ball. "What do you do with it?"

"Hold it for a while and then let it go and watch it fly away."

"What for?"

_ Humans often engage in rituals that bring them joy. It doesn’t always have meaning, _ the entity told me like I didn’t know. I wished I could glare but there was no one to glare at.

"Fun." Tasha was in my face. "The whole purpose of this place is to have some fun. It makes living a little easier, a little lighter."

I looked at Dr. Mensah like I needed rescuing all of a sudden. 

"Come on," she said quietly. "Let's go see if we can find you something that's actual food." She smiled at the were-bear. "It was a pleasure meeting you, Tasha. Feel free to reach out to us anytime."

After lunch, we entered the funhouse. 

I know humans are supposed to be delighted in things that bend the mind, but the house of mirrors gave me the creeps. I felt sufficiently unnerved to switch back into my wolf form. On the off chance that we got attacked three steps past the front door, I was ready. 

I walked ahead of the rest of the investigative team, using my superior senses to seek out our target. But, frankly, I doubted the sanity of any creature that would make its home in this horrible place. 

I stopped in front of a set of mirrors that distorted human proportions. Standing on four feet and only half as tall as the floor-to-ceiling mirror, I could still mostly identify what I was looking at. Trust humans to enjoy something as convoluted and mind-bending as this place.

And then a shadow walked straight out of the mirror and past me toward the investigators. It was a silhouette of a person, outlined in gray and green sparks of light. It sang as it moved, each word visible in the fog-shrouded room. 

The words were literally spilling out of its mouth like confetti and falling on the ground. 

I decided that this monster had bigger problems than a group of curious investigators to deal with.

"Indeed," said the strange spirit and the word plopped on the ground like a meatball. "This is what you might call a curse."

I yipped at it softly. "What kind of curse?"

It, of course, had no idea what I was saying. The mansion helped translate, somehow able to communicate with the creature just because of the pendant's proximity to the monster. 

"The kind born of ill intentions," the spirit answered just as the humans caught up.

I placed myself squarely between them and the spirit, moving so that, if it tried anything, it would have to go through me. 

Mensah put a hand on my back, between my shoulder blades, as a heads-up that she was standing beside me. I shivered at the unsolicited touch. Baradwahj was taking notes, and in the brief silence I could easily make out the sound of her pencil scraping against paper. 

"I wondered why so many beings of light were suddenly in my domain," the creature said, and the words floated away, carried by an unseen breeze. "But now, I understand. The humans beyond these walls never cease to surprise me."

Overse, whose magic also had a connection to words and writing, stepped forward. "Who are you?"

"A difficult question, human." The cursed being rose above the floor on bare feet and twirled before us. "Once, perhaps I was human. But then I was cursed, for speaking the words that needed to be said. And the curse is renewed with each passing moon. For fifty years now, unceasing and unfailing."

"Can you tell us who cursed you?"

"I never knew her name. But she was... beautiful. Like the light of a new moon falling on a still, silent lake."

I heard whispers among the group. Finally, Overse said, "If we could find the one who cursed you, perhaps we could convince her to lift it."

"Perhaps."

The spirit flittered past me and between the humans. It passed through them untouched and didn't appear to cause them any harm. Sparks of green light landed in her wake.

I knew the humans wouldn't leave this alone, so I shapeshifted and became human. The spirit turned to face me now that there were eight people between us, haphazardly arranged and staring.

"So you're more than a wolf."

"And you're more than a prisoner," I countered.

"A curse is a curse." The creature shrugged.

"Not every curse is the same. Why the mirrors?"

"So that I might remember the importance of the human shape, the wonder of what it means to be born a human being." She spit the words out. 

I had a sudden, inexplicable moment of clarity. "The head of the department did this, didn't she?"

"You're a smart one, little wolf."

No, not smart. Just good at remembering terrible things at inappropriate times. Mensah did this complicated thing where she got a little closer but didn't touch, like just existing would somehow prop me up. I don't know why. It's not like I cared what happened to this spirit or the uptight asshole of a human who chaired the department.

Overse and Arada grasped hands. Ratthi looked so very, utterly sad. 

Mensah made a decision. I like how she thinks hard about her choices but once she's chosen, it's full steam ahead. I hate humans who waffle about things.

"We're leaving," she told the team. "There's nothing more we can do here. The Archives got it wrong this time. Guardian, we have some things we need to do tomorrow. So you have the day off."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FlipSpring beta-read this chapter, so it now sounds 100 times better.


	12. Wolf's Day Off

I woke up on a hard, creaking bed, and it took a full minute to figure out that I was back in my cell. The investigative team had the day off, so technically I was off-duty. 

Practically, it meant that I was stuck down here in the basement with the other guardians and relegated to doing nothing all day. 

There weren't any windows down here, so the only way to tell the time was via my cell phone. And it announced that it was just after nine in the morning.

Sitting up, I fingered the pendant I was wearing under my clothes. It felt warm against my skin and pulsed softly. A gift from the asshole house, it was my ticket to finding its friends today. And they were, for all intents and purposes, its friends. It had shown me pictures of their smiling faces, and the adoration in its voice was unmistakable.

Sighing, I crawled out of bed and showered, then dressed in warmer clothing. The basement was chilly, which meant the weather outside had turned cold overnight. Also, the sweater hid the pendant and forestalled any questions about where it had come from.

Unless I'm working, I'm not allowed to leave the department headquarters. None of the guardians are. The collar prevents any unauthorized travel. Security staff knows this, so they're usually very lax about us coming and going. When the guard knew that no one could leave without explicit permission, they didn't think too hard about what happened in front of their noses. But I had a trick up my sleeve. So long as I wore the pendant, my collar would think I was working. The magic had an expiration time, but I had a whole day to work with.

A few other guardians, mostly were-creatures like me, were lounging in the recreation room when I passed. They were playing video games and didn't even look up when I headed out. 

Neither did the asshole on duty, who wasn't Andre but might as well have been a twin brother. I knew the guards by scent as much as sight, and this one always smelled of garlic and dirty socks. He waved in my general direction without looking and continued his endless game of solitaire. 

What surprised me that none of the security measures inside the building had even picked up on the pendant’s existence. It hadn’t triggered any alarms coming in or going out. 

Once I'd gotten a few blocks from the department HQ, I had the daunting task of figuring out where to start my search for the house's friends. 

I didn't know it when I took the pendant, but apparently, it allowed the asshole entity to talk to me over long distances, because suddenly there it was, riding shotgun in my head. I tried to ignore it, but it's hard to ignore something the size of a football field breathing in your ear.

_ I know you can hear me, _ the house practically whined. A moment later, it added,  _ This will go much faster if you let me help. Maybe you'll even have time to stop for ice cream. _

I had no idea what ice cream was, but the idea of getting done early sounded appealing.

_ Were you really a wolf before becoming a guardian? _ the house wanted to know, having completely switched topics.  _ You can tell me, you know. We're friends. You don't need to hide anything. _

_ I'm going to start with the address you gave me, _ I told it. 

_ Be careful, _ the mansion said somberly.  _ I don’t know what you’ll find there. It’s a cemetery. _

I nodded and plopped down on a bench at a bus stop.  _ Are you going to hang around all day? _

_ Of course. In case you need anything. Tell me about being a wolf. _

I rolled my eyes and cursed under my breath.  _ It was quiet. There were other packs in the forest where I lived, but I mostly traveled alone. _

_ And then what happened? You didn't sign up to be a guardian, I assume. _

The bus arrived, and I got on. There were only a couple of other passengers, but I still slunk all the way into the back and slid into a corner seat, as far away from the humans as physically possible.

_ I stumbled onto a pool of dark magic, in a cave, and fell in. _ That was the easy explanation. I'd been chasing a monster who threatened the local packs. I was the biggest wolf in the forest, so I went after it. It dodged and weaved its way through the cave, and I'd followed. Stupid mistake.

The house was quiet for a few seconds.  _ Did you suddenly shapeshift? _

_ Yeah, pretty much. _ I shrugged.  _ The department's hunters found me not too long after that. _

Truthfully, I'd panicked when I first became human and had scrambled away from the pit. It took me a few days to figure out how to shift back into a wolf, and the first few times had been rough. I thought the pool had been the end of it.

Until humans with weapons came for me.

_ I'm sorry, _ the entity whispered. 

_ What for? You didn't do it. And even the people who did, they were following their protocol. _ I stared out the window at the passing scenery. The people of this country were scared of dark magic, and the fear drove them to create the department. I understood the instinct—fear is something I knew intimately.

_ What about you, then? How'd you become a house? _ I asked

_ I was cultivated. _ The mansion sighed as if remembering something pleasant.  _ Like a garden, or like a child. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was beta-read by FlipSpring. A huge thank you to them.


	13. Cemetery

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zombie rats and a wise caretaker are par for the course.

The bus came to a halt outside a cemetery, and I got off.

Across a two-lane road, I could see hundreds of tombstones sticking up out of the leaf-covered ground in haphazardly arranged rows. A cold, bitter wind rustled the trees and dragged more leaves off their branches.

I stuck my hands in my pockets and crossed the street.

_ It should be just north of this place, _ the entity told me.  _ Just past the mausoleums. _

_ If your humans did a ritual in a cemetery, they were playing with fire,  _ I told the spirit.

Disturbing the dead, even with the best possible intentions, is asking for trouble. The souls of the deceased are often more concerned with their personal affairs than anything more noble, and rotting bodies make great homes for things best left unspoken.

_ They didn't have a choice, _ the house defended its humans. I could understand the sentiment; I knew what that felt like.

An old and stooped woman with a tall walking stick crossed my path. Bloodshot eyes regarded me for a moment, as if gauging my intentions, and then the caretaker moved on. Wisps of light magic curled on the ground in her wake like the feathers of some ancient bird.

At the end of the dirt road, I turned toward the distant trees and picked my way through the tombstones. Most looked worn and long-forgotten, the letters too worn down to make out the names of those resting underneath. I doubted the families visited anymore. 

_ Humans are sentimental about death _ , the house said. 

I didn't understand the point. Animals died all the time. I'd been born in a litter of six, and of my siblings, only three had made it to their first hunt. I didn't say anything, though, because I didn't want to remind the house that its humans might not be alive.

When I approached some strange, little buildings, the house explained that some humans didn't want to be buried beneath the earth and were stored in these dwellings instead. Wards surrounded them, though most no longer functioned. Like any other magic, someone had to renew them regularly, a process that used time and energy. 

_ If you're going to find anything, it will be somewhere out here. _ In a sudden change of pace, the house sounded almost uncertain. Almost.

_ What am I looking for, exactly? _

_ Signs of a ritual. They wanted to consult with a long-dead mage. _ The house sent me a brief but disorienting image of a large circle on the ground, surrounded by candles and ash.  _ The spell they meant to cast was old. Older than the Archives. Very few people would remember all the steps. They had high hopes that the grandmaster might have some clues. _

_ Would the spell have really called a spirit back from the dead? _

The house paused, and I could feel it frowning.  _ I'm not exactly sure. My humans thought conversing with the mage might give them the wisdom to change the future, but I'm not sure how. And they left without telling me all of the details. _

That sounded like something humans would say, so I didn’t keep questioning. Self-sacrifice was definitely a human thing.

Still, I was already out here and heading back would take another hour, so I might as well look around. I turned into a wolf and let my nose do the work. The cemetery smelled mostly of moss and grass, and the occasional rodent. I could hear mice scurrying in the bushes and birds cawing overhead.

As I meandered through the grass, something rustled to my left. I followed it through some thick bushes and into the middle of a tiny, zombie warzone. Except the zombies weren't human, they were rats. And they were being handily corralled by some waist-high, metal fencing. I could see bowls of fresh beef inside the pen, probably food for the tiny horde.

The caretaker cackled at me from the other side of this pet project. "Don't think you're here for the theater," she said lightly.

I became human, and she chuckled again. "I thought you might be the same person. Looking for something, I assume." She poked at one of the undead creatures with her staff, prodding it toward some meat. "Hungry little buggers, but not too bright."

My brain briefly blanked out. I had no idea what the caretaker was talking about. What person? How would she know me?

"Do you know where the grandmaster's buried?" I asked. It took me something like a minute to spit the words out. 

She pointed with her stick. "Down this little path, all the way in the back. But if you're thinking of raising him, it's a bit late. He's been dead and gone too long to trifle in the affairs of mortals."

"Some... friends of mine may have tried."

"All the more pity to them. The older ones are savage. Waking them from their slumber is a quick way to land on the other side of the grave yourself." She used her walking stick to shuffle in my direction. "But tell you something, lad. When I come across people like that, dumb enough—or brave enough—to dance with the master, I invite them for a cup of tea."

She gestured toward a hut. "So how about it?"

I shook my head. "I'm trying to find my friends."

"The last ones came perhaps a year ago. So determined, so sure of themselves."

_ Ask her what happened to them, _ the house demanded. 

She answered it directly. "They were seekers, this lot. I can't deny their enthusiasm. My memory isn't what it used to be, but these lads and lasses left a mighty impression. I told them that they wouldn't find what they sought here, not among the dead. But, the living... that's another story."

I didn't understand what the old woman was talking about, but before I could ask, she sighed. "Not all of the old masters are gone. Some hide in plain sight. Why rot in the ground when you can soar?"

"Do you know where they went?"

"To the halls of our great city, of course. Armed with their wands and their books."

I decided the caretaker was insane and started walking away when she called out, "Wait, guardian. You were there, weren't you? On the night of the riots."

I spun around and out of the corner of my eye, I saw the caretaker in a different form. She’d stood at the front of a crowd of humans, sheltering them with her magic. She’d been a bright light in the midst of a very dark day.

Exactly a year before, a group of mages had been tried and judged guilty for the crime of wanting to be free. Their friends and fellow practitioners had protested in the streets. The department sent me and several other guardians to deal with them using any means necessary.

The day had ended in tragedy.

The woman's expression was truly sad when she spoke again. "For a very long time now, there have been two disciplines of magic: the light and the darkness. Two seemingly separate stories. The light relies on control and careful preparation, and the darkness runs wild through the veins of men and beasts." She paused. "You know these stories."

She stopped, and I nodded.

"But the ones who came here were seeking another story. One that contains both white and black, light and darkness." 

“Thank you,” I told the caretaker.

I didn’t think her words meant much and headed back to the city empty-handed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A huge thank you to FlipSpring for beta-reading this story!   
> Constructive criticism is more than welcome.


	14. The Mansion's Friends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's a scary moment kind of in the middle.

I didn't know there were tunnels underneath the capitol building. I only stumbled onto them because the house wouldn't leave well-enough alone. 

After the creepy cemetery, we'd headed back into the city. The house had been quiet for the whole ride, and I was almost convinced it had given up its search. Nope, not at all. Instead, it had spent the hour researching some of the less esoteric details the witch had mentioned.

And its brilliant plan was to sneak into one of the best-guarded buildings in the city.

I cursed it but went anyway because whenever the house mentioned its humans, I felt a pang of something indescribable. I'd lost humans before—missions gone wrong, contracts finished—and while I didn't like any of them, I didn't exactly relish terrible endings.

_ Just follow this path _ , the house told me as we approached the four-story-tall building.  _ And then hop the fence. Security around here should be light. _

I could see at least three armed policemen, but they weren't paying good attention, and as a human, I don't stand out from the crowd. So I walked next to a group of noisy humans until the sidewalk and the path split, and then took the path and darted through some bushes. 

If anyone noticed, they didn't raise any alarms. 

Quietly, I climbed a wire-mesh fence and landed on the other side in the middle of a rose garden. I didn't see any roses, but I could still smell them. 

_ There should be stairs somewhere around here? _ the entity said.

I looked around and saw only grass, trees, and the brick side of a building. As I started forward, though, I noticed that the trees partially hid an entrance that descended into the ground. It was well-hidden, but not well enough. After taking a final look to make sure I wasn't spotted, I headed down the stairs and through the rusty, metal door.

More stairs led the way down into the darkened gloom.  _ Hurry, _ the house whispered as I shapeshifted.

At the bottom of the stairwell, I came to a long, narrow corridor that smelled of wet stone and human habitation. Some light filtered down from above me, and the rest was provided by lights that hung from the ceiling, bare bulbs with their yellow glow.

I walked hesitantly down the hall and ran directly into a ritual. The humans stood clustered around a large circle drawn in the ground, apparently frozen in time. Or at least that was my interpretation of the scene. Candles must have been lit at one time but were burned down to little more than charred wicks now. 

The house was horrified. I could feel it through the pendant, shivering and trying to remain calm. 

_ I don’t know what to do, _ it said.

_ I do. _

It peppered me with questions I didn’t want to answer. Finally, I settled on,  _ I could do magic. Before. _

_ Do magic? _ it clarified.

I walked around the edge of the circle, reading the inscriptions and trying to make sense of the spell. Whatever this was, wasn’t a mistake. It was a malicious deed by a third party, now long gone. I could almost feel the chill of their empty void.

I didn’t want to explain myself, but the mansion practically needed to understand.  _ I was born with some degree of magic and a knack for understanding how it works, _ I answered.  _ For a long time I used to keep my home safe. _

Except, I hadn’t known the extent of my skills until the hunters bound me because wild magic in the wilderness of a forest looks practically normal. It had taken me a long time to figure out what I could and couldn’t do, and then, I couldn’t do most of it.

_ Wait… _ The house paused as if thinking deeply, and then went on,  _ Are you what I think you are? _

There was both light and darkness inside of me, somewhere. Largely forgotten now. No one had ever asked me how old I was, and wolves don’t exactly celebrate birthdays. But I’d been around a while. A long, long while. 

And it was sheer luck that now I could sort of understand the steps of this ritual. And the tampering that had caused it to go so very wrong.

I knelt down, human now, and placed my hands on the edges of the circle, channeled power that felt like silk through my arms and into the ground. There was a whoosh of air, powerful enough that it sent me flying into a wall.

And the humans came to life.

I sat there, dizzy, and stared as they glanced first at one another and then at me. Hugs were shared, thankfully not with me. And then, a tall, older man approached me.

“Who are you?” he asked, looking me up and down.

_ Tell them Peri sent you _ , the house whispered.

I blinked. “A mansion sent me. Calls itself Peri? Schemes a bit?”

“It’s our friend,” the man assured me. “My name’s Seth.”

I got up and looked down the corridor. “We have to leave. What I just did probably alerted every magic user in the vicinity. We don’t want to be here when they come snooping.”

I started walking, not bothering to see if the strangers followed. Peri—the house—was giving me random status updates. It labeled all of the humans for me, so now I knew their names and ages. And didn’t care.

I told them to follow me but keep their distance. I didn’t know what kinds of monsters roamed the catacombs or what sort of security kept this place free of interlopers. When the humans nodded, I started walking. If we encountered something particularly nasty, the last thing I wanted was to have to defend Peri’s humans.

I didn’t want to go back the way I’d come in because that’s where we were likely to encounter resistance. Deeper into the tunnels seemed like a safer bet at the moment. 

I’d taken all of twenty steps when time ran out.

I felt the exact moment the pendant spell dispersed. One moment I was striding forward down a dilapidated hallway, and the next the collar tightened around my neck. I couldn't breathe. Sluggish, half-formed thoughts chased themselves around in my head. Foremost among them, panic.

My cell phone rang. Of all things.

Seth caught up to me even though I’d asked them to stay back and was suddenly kneeling over me. He searched around in my pocket and grabbed the ringing phone. For a moment, he spoke quietly with someone on the other end. I was losing consciousness and couldn't make out what they were saying, but he said, "yeah, of course" and pressed the phone to my ear.

Mensah's voice came through loud and clear. "Guardian, you're officially on duty and have my permission to assist Seth and his friends in whatever capacity you deem necessary."

The collar loosened again, content that I was where I was supposed to be. I rolled over and gasped for breath. 

Mensah again, worried this time, her voice frantic. "Are you alright? Guardian, where are you?"

I was still trying to catch my breath. "Underneath the capitol building and courthouse." My voice came out hoarse and barely understandable. I was surprised when the human didn't ask me to repeat.

"We'll be there in an hour. Less. Stay safe."

"The house..." I started.

"I know. It told us. When it knew you weren't going to make it in time. Stay put. We're on our way."

Seth helped me up. "Guardian?" He sounded hesitant.

"We have to go." I pushed myself to my feet. "Now."

"You're a guardian," he repeated as the rest of the house's friends caught up to us. A moment later, he nodded and there was a determined look in his eyes. "Right. Let's move. We'll keep a few steps back."

Now the human could follow instructions. Sometimes, I just want to shake people, even when they mean well.

I listened for sounds of traffic and followed them through what appeared to be an offshoot of a sewer system. It didn't seem to be in use anymore, but you could still tell. Eventually I spotted a ladder heading upward.

"Over here," I said, already halfway up, and pushed the grate above my head open. 

As soon as I could see that it was safe up above, I jumped down and gestured for the humans to go ahead. All except Seth managed to climb up successfully. I had to give them credit—a year of magical imprisonment couldn’t have felt good, but no one complained.

I gave Seth a hand and then followed him out into the cool, night air.

_ Oh thank goodness, _ the mansion, Peri, said.

“Can I speak with Peri?” Seth asked me.

I took the pendant off and handed it to him. In the distance, I could see the investigators’ rented van coming toward us. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I keep saying thank you to FlipSpring, and franky, at this point, they deserve a medal for putting up with me.


	15. Head of the Department

Dr. Mensah looked angry when she and Pin-Lee came to meet me at the department’s headquarters. 

It was morning and several days since we’d found the mansion’s humans. I’d been off-duty since then and stuck indoors. So this was a nice change of pace. I was sitting outside on the building’s front steps with another guardian and got up when the familiar van drove up. But it was only the two of them, and Mensah waved at me to stay where I was.

“Your clients?” asked the other guardian.

I nodded.

She smiled. “Good luck.”

I stared at the ground and waited until Pin-Lee came close enough for me to see her shoes. “Come on,” she said quietly and the three of us headed up the steps.

The ground floor of the building looked intentionally impressive. Tall columns appeared to hold up a map of the world, painted by fairies onto the ceiling. Rayne staffed the receptionist desk by the front door, and she looked up when Dr. Mensah approached.

“I’m here to see the department head.”

“Do you have an appointment?” Rayne looked skeptical.

She had a calendar of everyone’s appointments stored on a rickety old computer that took up half her desk, but she preferred staring down at people through her thick glasses and forcing them to answer pointless questions. 

It didn’t work on Dr. Mensah who was too poised and graceful to contort herself for the sake of polite behavior. I doubt Rayne knew it, but I could tell that my client was pissed off in the square set of her shoulders and narrowed eyes.

“Yes, we do.”

Pin-Lee produced a scroll that was still slightly glowing. I could feel the magical energy imbued in it even from where I stood a few steps behind my clients. Here was the only place where I couldn’t protect them.

Pin-Lee turned toward me like she’d read my mind. “Don’t worry, we got this.”

I didn’t know what this was, exactly. The group’s itinerary had been empty for the last few days and when I checked their tentative plans for the day, all it mentioned was I needed to meet them.

That bothered me, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.

Rayne was forced to turn on the machine she appeared to despise and verify that Dr. Mensah was telling the truth. She turned her nose up at the scroll but noted something about it in her thick, leather notebook.

“So it seems. Third floor, end of the hall.” The receptionist looked even more displeased. 

“Let’s go,” Mensah told us, and the three of us headed across the tiled floor into the bowels of the building.

I wished I still had the pendant, but I’d given it to Seth before we’d parted ways and hadn’t seen them or my humans since. I found myself reaching for my shirt where it had been, snug against my chest and then remembering that I no longer had it. 

An elevator took us to the third floor, and we got off into a soft, carpeted hallway. Paintings of previous department heads hung on the walls, their faces austere and lacking in warmth. Intricate, fake flowers stood in vases on low tables along the darkly-painted walls. 

“Someone’s showing off,” Pin-Lee whispered.

Dr. Mensah stiffened her shoulders even further, as though preparing for a fight. Sort of like I did when I shapeshifted and faced off with a much larger opponent. 

“No matter what happens in there, guardian, you are not to attack.”

“You’re my clients.”

Mensah stopped and looked directly at me. “Not every fight is fought with teeth and claws.” She smiled. “I know you’d fight anyone to the death for your clients. But not this time.”

Pin-Lee smiled and twirled the scroll in her hand. “And we have this.”

“What is it?”

“A court order,” the solicitor explained, “transferring you from the department’s care to ours.”

I took a step back, heart pounding. “What for? Why?”

“Does it matter?” Mensah asked.

Horror twisted my insides. It didn’t have anything to do with Dr. Mensah specifically. I just couldn’t imagine moving from one owner to another. I didn’t want any more chains and locks and rules, especially when they were made by people I cared about. 

It was a lot. I had an emotional reaction and I couldn’t even begin to catalog it. Panic was somewhere in there. I didn’t want to be here and I didn’t want to go wherever it was the investigators called home.

Pin-Lee saw my stricken expression and said, “Regardless of what you decide to do after we’re done here, we’re doing this.” She gestured at the scroll. “We’re not letting the department keep you.”

Before I could voice a complaint, Mensah started walking again. They took the last twenty steps down the corridor and through a set of majestic double doors into the office of the department head. I followed, still horrified.

I didn’t end up biting anyone. Frankly, I didn’t know that it would help.

The director sat behind a large, ornately-decorated desk. Natural light filtered in through the floor-to-ceiling windows behind her. She was dressed in a sharp business suit and looked not a day over thirty, though she’d run the department practically since its inception. That made her old and scary, not unlike something you might summon from a hidden crypt. I wouldn’t recommend it, by the way.

She saw me—for a brief, endless moment our eyes met—and I might’ve growled at the human. The expression on her face was stony, dispassionate. She didn’t pause, didn’t even flinch, as she remotely yanked on my binding that she was partially responsible for creating. For a brief moment, everything hurt, and then, there was only silence and the welcoming arms of unconsciousness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One or two more chapters to go (depending on whether an epilogue counts as a chapter) and we're done!  
> Thank you to FlipSpring for all the help. And thank you to the commenters!


	16. Kennel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Final chapter.

The director’s command must have expired at some point because I woke up.

I lay in the corner of a large kennel, exhausted in a way I couldn’t readily describe, and I couldn’t stop thinking that it was cold and empty. One of the technicians had turned off the lights, so it was dark, and water was quietly dripping in a sink somewhere above my head.

I missed Dr. Mensah and the asshole mansion, for entirely different reasons. I also didn’t know what happened to them. Were my clients all right?

When I had the pendant, and Peri constantly wanted to share its endless opinions about everything, I’d wondered at the level of its loneliness. Now, as I lay quietly inside the cage, I had an inkling of what it must’ve felt like. 

And I didn’t feel particularly bad about helping it, department rules be damned. I just wanted them all to be OK right now.

I heard noises somewhere on the other side of the thick wall. Humans are normally loud, but this sounded different. Perhaps even familiar, though it was too quiet to make out what anyone was saying. 

I know humans don’t just shout to talk, but after spending any appreciable amount of time around them, I was convinced it was their preferred communication method. Pointing and shouting and pointing some more. Like no one would understand them unless they spoke extra loud. 

Whoever was on the other side was oddly quiet. 

The door to the animal storage room opened and bright, harsh light from the hall spilled inside. Mensah stood in the doorway, her silhouette entirely not imposing because she wasn’t a tall person. More whispers floated in, and this time I could tell it was Pin-Lee and possibly Seth. 

I had no idea what any of them were doing here. The mansion’s residents were supposed to be recovering, and the investigators had likely been sent away by the head of the department. I could feel an IV in my arm, and the cold sensation of something trickling into my veins. Enough anesthetic in there to take out a moose, so it was only a matter of time before my heart stopped beating.

I wondered if the department would even keep records of what it had done.

Except…

Wait…

Dr. Mensah came over and grabbed my paw straight through the kennel bars. She yanked the IV needle out and pressed two fingers against the resulting wound.

“Long time no see,” Seth joked as he remained in the doorway, clearly a lookout.

“Don’t change shape,” Mensah warned. “You can survive a lot more as a wolf.”

Technically, that wasn’t true, but I didn’t want to correct the human because she was nice. And then a familiar voice said,  _ You’re an idiot, and thank you. And don’t you dare do anything stupid. _

I whined at the pendant, which was currently around Dr. Mensah’s neck. 

Pin-Lee came over and picked the kennel lock. For a mage, she was awful good with those things. I crawled out and sat on the floor, puzzled and confused. None of them should be here said my sluggish brain. And I could be hallucinating, but realistically, why would I hallucinate an asshole if I could avoid it.

Mensah slid the pendant around my neck and the house instantly said,  _ It’s real. The drugs are probably making it hard to think. _

_ Shut up. _

_ You need to free yourself before the humans can finish their rescue. _

This was a rescue, wasn’t it? Yeah, my brain was moving at the speed of snails navigating molasses. I tried to string together a coherent retort that the humans didn’t need me, but it got lost somewhere between mind and mouth. 

_ Come on, Kai. _

The name sounded familiar. Wait.  _ That’s my name. How do you know my name? _

_ My humans found it in the Archives and shared it with your humans. I gave them the book on how to unravel the spell. You should have just told them your name. _

_ I couldn’t tell them. _

_ You could have found a way. You could have told me. You could have done a dozen other things. _

Right.  _ I wish they hadn’t looked. _

The department keeps meticulous records. The hunters who found me knew that a magical creature of some sort lived in the forest, so finding me had been a matter of time. They’d written down things I would have rather forgotten.

_ Humans, remember? They’re nosy and hard to stop once they get started. The trick is to give them time. They get better the longer you know them. Especially the small ones. _ The entity had a point. It was true for wolves, too.

_ OK,  _ I said.

_ Good. You have your name, and your magic, and the humans have all the light you could possibly want. Get to it. _

So here’s the problem: I’m bound to the department by a complicated tapestry of magical spell and ritual. Someone wove this piece of a magic-infused straightjacket. And they had days, if not weeks, to make it work. I had all of five minutes while the humans sorted out an escape plan to untangle all the threads. While under the influence of anesthetic. 

Luckily for me, I had once read the manual that allowed department hunters to create bindings, so I wasn’t doing this totally blind. OK, mostly blind. Also, if you’re wondering why I had access to the manual, blame human laziness. Instead of handing me a pamphlet on minor magic distribution while bound, some idiot had given me the whole manual. And I was bored a lot in those days, so I’d read it wholesale.

_ We’ll help you, _ the mansion informed me.

It must’ve been speaking to someone else, too, because Pin-Lee came over and shared her magic with me.

The very first thread of magic didn’t do what I told it so I zapped myself. Ow, fuck! I fell over for a moment. But after that, it went quicker. True to its promise, the asshole house helped by keeping track of the threads in some way I absolutely couldn’t. Assholish but Resourceful Troublemaker. Henceforth: ART. 

Pin-Lee channeled her magic to me with minimal finesse, which was totally fine because ART was very, very good at this. Together, we unraveled the binding like so much tissue paper. It came off me in fluttering pieces and then vanished when it hit the floor. Mensah stood back, watching. 

_ You should tell her your name. _

_ She knows it already, _ I pointed out.

_ I think she’d like to hear it from you. Now that you can. _

I yipped at no one in particular as the last thread fell away and the collar dissolved. I shivered for a moment as my magic—the vast beautiful tapestry that I knew as my own—flooded through me. I had access to my magic again, all of it, not just the department-approved bits. I could go home. I didn’t have to obey anyone’s orders anymore.

_ You should go with Dr. Mensah,  _ ART suggested in its most authoritative voice.  _ She lives in a much nicer city. _

_ No thank you, _ I told the house.  _ There are things I want to do. _

Pin-Lee stood up, unsteady on her feet, and I shapeshifted to lend her a shoulder. It was so much easier when I had more energy to spare—even if my newly freed reserves would take weeks to fill.

“Welcome back, Guardian.” Mensah looked pleased.

I smiled shyly. ART was right about the introduction. Stupid asshole house. “Thank you, for rescuing me. For everything. My name was Kai. The forest spirits named. Before. Guardian is better.”

“A pleasure to meet you, Guardian,” Mensah said.

Seth gestured from the doorway. “Let’s get moving.”

I shook my head. “You go. I’m not done here, yet.”

Dr. Mensah came over but didn’t touch me. That’s one of the reasons she was my favorite client. “You know where to find us. When you’re ready. If you want to.” She smiled at me. “I know you’re free to do whatever you want, but I meant what I said. You are always welcome with us.”

Yeah. I know.

_ The End. _


	17. Epilogue / Doodle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This happens shortly after the previous chapter, and it's just a doodle of what might've been.

I could have gone upstairs and snapped the director's throat.

But when I thought about it, about all the ways the media and the government portrayed guardians, all I felt was a wave of sadness. 

Andre was sitting near the stairs when I approached, and he just jotted down my apparent arrival with minimal fuss. No one had told him that I was supposed to be dead, and the sweater I was wearing hid my obviously-missing collar. 

"Back late today," he grumbled. "Curfew's in ten minutes."

_ Aren't you going to tell him? _ ART asked.

I nodded to the human and walked right on down into the basement. The first guardian I encountered was the wolf from the quarry. She looked much better now, weeks after the fight with the dragon. In wolf form, she approached me and yipped in something that humans might call delight. 

I knelt until we were face to face. She pressed her wet snout into my cheek. The friendly greeting was quickly replaced with confusion.

"Would you like me to do the same to you?"

She nodded and whined softly. With ART's help, I unraveled her binding; it was significantly easier to do so for another person than to myself. For a long moment, we faced each other, and then she shifted forms, and I stood up.

"Thank you."

I nodded.

The guardian went to touch me, maybe wrap her arms around me in a hug, and I backed away with a vehement head shake. 

"Cass," she said. 

"Nice to meet you. Properly."

"Asshole still up there?" She nodded toward the stairs.

"Yeah."

"Good."

If she ate him, all the better, but I doubted it.

I walked through the halls, opening cages and unlocking cell doors, and no one tried to stop me. I doubt anyone even knew, although they'd figure it out soon enough. Only six guardians were actually down here, and I offered the others the same thing I'd done for Cass.

Trix grinned at me as it shifted forms and practically flew out the door, wings spread and eyes wide. It definitely wouldn't eat the security guard; mice and the occasional pigeon were more its fares than human flesh. It was also far too nice.

At the far end of the corridor, I stopped in front of a cell and lingered. I could hear someone crying inside, someone new who smelled familiar. When I opened the door, Tasha looked up at me with red-rimmed eyes. 

Oh fuck.

"Guardian," she said quietly.

ART poked me.  _ Tell her. _

"I... they found you?"

"Think more stupid." She sniffled.

"I don't get it."

"I went to find you."

My jaw dropped. I kind of wanted to reach out and shake the were-bear until she understood not to walk into the halls of her enemies alone. The mansion told me to cut it out—humans routinely tried to help other humans, and this was no different.

"Here," I said and unraveled her binding. It was so new and fresh that it took barely any effort. "Better?"

Tasha nodded and got up. "Oh wow, yeah. Wow! I didn't... I thought this was forever."

"It could've been," I grumbled.

"Thank you. Again! Are your friends here, too?"

I shook my head. "I don't think—" I closed my eyes and held back a smile because knowing them, the answer was inevitably, "I hope not."

"They seemed really nice, back at the amusement park. I'd want friends like that."

Well, I didn't. I mean, I didn't want friends in general. I liked people at a distance, safely engaged in other pursuits or on the other side of a television screen. Up close and personal, where they could touch me... that was maybe too much.

Tasha laughed. "Your face just did a thing."

"A thing?"

"You know, like I just suggested you eat shit."

"Uh, it's just something my face does sometimes."

She cracked up. "Yeah, when you have those pesky emotions. What's next?"

I didn't actually have a plan. "I guess I wait."

"Until the department sends in actual hunters? That's not a plan. That's suicide."

"It's none of your business."

"Guardian," Tasha said, and waited until I was looking directly at her, "come on, let's go."

Sometimes, I wondered how I'd missed the basics. Wolves know when to hunt and when to hide. Even humans sense when monsters are near. But me, I didn't know a damn thing. I stared when Tasha took my hand and gently tugged me in the direction of the stairs. 

The first guard came down the steps wielding a knife. Tasha was in front, and the asshole went to grab her. I shifted before I could think. A wolf went for the knife-wielding human, and fuck anyone who got in my way.


End file.
